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Holiday, Vacation & Weekend

Holiday Centerpiece
Ideas

A
holiday centerpiece would make a wonderful focal point
or main decoration for Thanksgiving, Christmas,
Hanukkah, New Year’s and other holiday occasions. You
can place the centerpiece on your table, entryway table
or other large area or space.

Plus there are
limitless ways to make your centerpiece special. You can
mix-and-match festive objects you have around your house
with materials from a craft or fabric store and even add
them to wonderful creations from online stores...

gift baskets,fruit baskets,Thanksgiving
gifts,Christmas gifts,

A holiday centerpiece
would make a wonderful focal point or main decoration
for Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, New Year’s and
other holiday occasions. You can place the centerpiece
on your table, entryway table or other large area or
space.

Plus there are limitless ways to make your
centerpiece special. You can mix-and-match festive
objects you have around your house with materials from a
craft or fabric store and even add them to wonderful
creations from online stores. Then design and create
coordinating pieces for nearby countertop or the mantle
over the fire place, front porch or other area.

Some mix-and-match ideas include:

Fall Vegetables

Begin with a pumpkin and gourds. Loosely arrange
them on the table or mantle. Set a natural-color candle
on each side of your display. Finish your free form art
center piece by sprinkling colorful fall leaves all over
and around your center pieces. Make sure they are not
too close to the candles, of course.

Fall &
Winter Leaves & Berries

Simply find a large glass
bowl and fill it with beautiful fall leaves or holly
leaves and berries. Set a candle on each side of the
bowl to showcase the leaves. Then, cut leaf shapes out
of construction paper and use them as place cards. Of
course you could also press small leaves, and glue them
to a plain white place card.

Floral Display of
Abundance

Make a dried floral arrangement from
fall and winter flowers. Gather some of the plastic
sticks that the florists use to hold notecards. Stick
them into the floral display, but put photos of the
things you are thankful for in them, instead. Or, if you
don’t have photos, just write words on notecards and
display them in the floral arrangement. Some words you
may start with are “family”, “friends”, “food”,
“laughter”.

Carve A Pumpkin

Yes, you heard
right, carve a pumpkin. Of course you don’t want to go
with the traditional jack-o-lantern design here. Instead
carve some geometrical designs, or some flowers,
leaf-shapes etc. on your hollowed out pumpkin. Add a
candle inside the carved pumpkin and light it just
before your guests arrive.

Holiday Candle Holders

Get some small pumpkins, Christmas or other candle
holders and tiny candles to use with them. Group of few
of these candle holders together for a festive center
piece. Finish your candle arrangement with a few pieces
of native corn or festive ornaments placed around your
holiday candle holders. Give the arrangement more
dimension by using different size pumpkins, ornaments
and candles. Use some scented candles to give your room
that Holiday smell.

Dig through your holiday
supplies or take a stroll through your local craft store
and you will come up with your own versions of these
suggestions, or even a creation all your own.

Check out books from your local library for more ideas
to decorate your home and business environment. You can
make your own centerpieces and coordinating decorations
or visit fun shops online. It’s as simple as that!

Iggy's Holiday
T-Shirt's

Earlier this week I was looking for some t-shirts to
take away with me on holiday, I wanted something
different with original designs, not the usual boring
stuff. After looking around for a while I found a shop
displaying a great selection of t-shirts, sporting some
truly unique designs - they looked ideal, that was until
I noticed the price tags.

Earlier this week I was
looking for some t-shirts to take away with me on
holiday, I wanted something different with original
designs, not the usual boring stuff. After looking
around for a while I found a shop displaying a great
selection of t-shirts, sporting some truly unique
designs - they looked ideal, that was until I noticed
the price tags.

"These are all limited edition
designs," said the assistant "so they cost a bit more,"
a bit more? I thought - it would be cheaper to wear a
painting from the Tate!

That night I remembered a
article in a computer magazine about printing your own
t-shirt at home. It said all I needed was a t-shirt, an
Inkjet printer, an iron, a sheet of ordinary white
copier paper and a pack of inkjet transfer paper. So all
I needed to pick up was a t-shirt and the transfer
paper. According to this article all I had to do was
print out my design or photo onto the transfer paper and
then iron it onto the t-shirt, peel off the backing
paper and voila you have your own very unique t-shirt,
sounds easy enough I thought.

I ended up with a
pack of three plain t-shirts for £12 and a pack of ten
t-shirt transfers for £8. I discovered there were two
types of t-shirt transfers, one for dark t-shirts and
one for light or white t-shirts, I chose the dark
t-shirt transfers as my new t-shirts were black.

As soon as I got back home, I got on the case straight
away and set about knocking up a few designs. To get
some inspiration I flicked through my collection of
fonts and photos, drew up some outlines and before I
knew it I had several designs I liked ready for print.

Wasting no time, I printed out my design on to
the transfer paper, cut it out and furiously began
ironing my transfer on to my new t-shirt, ensuring I had
covered the entire area of the transfer paper with the
iron. A couple of minutes later I was peeling the
transfer from my t-shirt with baited breath. And there
it was, my design emblazoned across the chest of my new
t-shirt, it looked great, except for the fact that it
was back to front! I had forgotten to create a "mirror
image" of the design before printing it to the transfer
paper, as it clearly states in the instructions.
Curses…one t-shirt wasted, just as well I got the 3
pack.

I managed to get the other t-shirts
printed up to my satisfaction, looking good this time,
they were the right way round!

Whilst reading the
instructions again I discovered that it is possible to
get a different finish on the t-shirt design by ironing
over it with different types of paper. You can get a
matte finish on your t-shirt by ironing over it with a
sheet of ordinary white copier paper for 10 seconds,
this, I thought gave the transferred design a less
shiney, more professional look. The transfers also work
on many different items of clothing such as shorts,
baseball caps and even on some mouse matt's. I was
really surprised to find that the printed t-shirts were
fully machine washable.

Although I wasted one
t-shirt, a sheet of transfer paper and managed to burn
myself with the iron in my excitement, it was well worth
it. I am doing the shirts for our under tens football
team just for fun. It is very easy to do, but I would
say to read the instructions carefully before you start
and try on a sample first before using real clothes!

New Orleans Earns a
Spot On Your Holiday Wish List

Traveling for the holidays? With low hotel
rates, special culinary offerings, cultural and family
events and unique shopping, New Orleans makes the
perfect destination.

New Orleans Earns a Spot On
Your Holiday Wish List

Traveling for the
holidays? With low hotel rates, special culinary
offerings, cultural and family events and unique
shopping, New Orleans makes the perfect destination.

In December, New Orleans comes alive with music,
food and decorations - all with the sounds, scents and
sights of the season.

Food lovers will revel in
the free daily cooking demonstrations given by the
city's top chefs and have the special opportunity to
savor a traditional Creole dinner, the Reveillon,
offered in many of New Orleans' best restaurants. These
fixed-price menus include a minimum of four courses and
feature such delicacies as Louisiana sweet potato
risotto, pecan-crusted venison tenderloin and eggnog
creme brulee.

Music afficionados can enjoy free
nightly concerts in the magnificent 18th-century St.
Louis Cathedral in the historic French Quarter as some
of the city's top jazz, gospel and contemporary
musicians perform in full holiday splendor. Visitors can
even sing along at the "Caroling in Jackson Square" on
Dec. 19, where the songs of the season are sung by
candlelight in one of the country's most historic and
picturesque settings.

Ethnic holiday events also
abound as a Celtic Christmas celebration, a Kwanzaa
festival, two public Chanukah observances and others add
to the unique melting pot of the city's heritage.

To help visitors stuff their loved ones' stockings
with one-of-a-kind gifts, New Orleans

offers
limitless shopping

opportunities in the historic
French Quarter, and the six miles of Magazine Street
shops feature everything from antiques and boutiques to
auction houses and curiosity shops.

Majestic City
Park's "Celebration in the Oaks" is unique as visitors
can walk, drive or ride a horse-drawn carriage through a
dazzling display of 2 million lights strung through
draping, centuries-old oak trees.

The holiday fun
continues

after Dec. 25 with a New Year's Eve
celebration only New Orleans could host. As a giant,
lighted king cake baby drops from Jax Brewery at
midnight, top local bands play for the crowds as
fireworks ignite the darkened skies above the
Mississippi River.

On Jan. 3, sports fans can
enjoy the Nokia Sugar Bowl in the Louisiana Superdome,
which will host two of the country's best collegiate
football teams.